I think WesleyDavid summed it up nicely, but the answer's perhaps a bit short on actual content, containing as it does only excellent links.
To answer your question, there is no technical bar to arbitrary top-level domains (TLDs). If you were to get up one morning and declare that .dukevin was a new TLD, and that you had built the DNS infrastructure to deal with it overnight, then if and only if you could convince all the operators of the root servers (the distributed set of DNS servers that respond to queries for .) that they should delegate this new TLD to your DNS infrastructure, then voila, there'd be a new TLD.
New TLDs happen occasionally, mostly because new country codes are created (.ps for the Palestinian Territories in 2000, .ss for South Sudan last year (though it's not yet operational)), which should show that it's far from impossible. But the operators of the root servers also generally respect ICANN's authority in this matter, so new TLDs are generally only created when they say so.
There comes a point when, if you ask "why" enough times, you will be met with, not technical facts, but history and the one word answer: "because."
The history involved is longer and more detailed than an answer here can do justice to. Also, better writers than me have already delved into the topic. The ultimate short story is truly: "Because ARPA wanted it that way." In fact, the very first tld was .arpa. There had to be a logical way of tiering human resources into a human readable system. Thus, ARPA decided that the three broadest means of categorizing those human readable resource designators would be: Countries, Categories, and Multiorganizations.
As the internet grew in use and usefulness, it was deemed that more top level domains would be useful. ICANN was created to take over for the government on several management topics, including the formation of IANA (a department of ICANN) which handles DNS TLDs. More and more TLDs have been formed to make the internet a, supposedly, easier place to navigate. And thus we have .xxx. As well as the originals com, edu, gov, mil, and net that go back to '85. Why were they made? Because people thought they should be made.
That's it in a nutshell. The reason is more about history and how humans prefer to see information visually represented. If you dive into the RFCs, wikis, and old technical papers, you'll get to see the human side of how technology is formed.
I think WesleyDavid summed it up nicely, but the answer's perhaps a bit short on actual content, containing as it does only excellent links.
To answer your question, there is no technical bar to arbitrary top-level domains (TLDs). If you were to get up one morning and declare that
.dukevinwas a new TLD, and that you had built the DNS infrastructure to deal with it overnight, then if and only if you could convince all the operators of the root servers (the distributed set of DNS servers that respond to queries for.) that they should delegate this new TLD to your DNS infrastructure, then voila, there'd be a new TLD.New TLDs happen occasionally, mostly because new country codes are created (
.psfor the Palestinian Territories in 2000,.ssfor South Sudan last year (though it's not yet operational)), which should show that it's far from impossible. But the operators of the root servers also generally respect ICANN's authority in this matter, so new TLDs are generally only created when they say so.Because that's the way it is.
Oh, and this is also the way it is.
And this.
There comes a point when, if you ask "why" enough times, you will be met with, not technical facts, but history and the one word answer: "because."
The history involved is longer and more detailed than an answer here can do justice to. Also, better writers than me have already delved into the topic. The ultimate short story is truly: "Because ARPA wanted it that way." In fact, the very first tld was
.arpa. There had to be a logical way of tiering human resources into a human readable system. Thus, ARPA decided that the three broadest means of categorizing those human readable resource designators would be: Countries, Categories, and Multiorganizations.As the internet grew in use and usefulness, it was deemed that more top level domains would be useful. ICANN was created to take over for the government on several management topics, including the formation of IANA (a department of ICANN) which handles DNS TLDs. More and more TLDs have been formed to make the internet a, supposedly, easier place to navigate. And thus we have
.xxx. As well as the originalscom,edu,gov,mil, andnetthat go back to '85. Why were they made? Because people thought they should be made.That's it in a nutshell. The reason is more about history and how humans prefer to see information visually represented. If you dive into the RFCs, wikis, and old technical papers, you'll get to see the human side of how technology is formed.